The Warriors intend to discuss a multi-year contract with Draymond Green This offseason, according to Anthony Slater and Shams Charania of The Athletic. Green holds a player option worth $27.6 million for 2023-24, so if he agrees to a long-term deal with Golden State, he can either sign up and complete an extension or opt out and sign a new contract entirely.
Green told Mark J. Spears from Andscape (Twitter linkAfter losing Game 6 of the season finale to the Lakers on Friday, he has yet to make up his mind about his player option and will take some time to evaluate his options with his agent, Rich Paul.
Green wasn’t on the floor for the final 10 minutes of the Warriors season Friday night, after he was knocked out of the game early in the fourth quarter with a bad tackle and then ruled out with right calf tightness (Twitter link). But he doesn’t want this to be the way his tenure at Golden State ends, telling reporters after the game that he hopes to stay with the Warriors for years to come.
“I want to be a Warrior for the rest of my life,” said Green, in The Athletic. “I want to ride with the same guys I rode with.”
Coach Steve Kerr stated after Friday’s loss that this year’s edition of the Warriors “wasn’t a championship team,” Yahoo Sports’ Vincent Goodwill said. Tweets. However, Slater and Charania say there is still an internal belief within the organization that the list is built around it Stephen CurryAnd Clay Thompsonand Green could compete for titles, so there will be a desire to keep that core together moving forward, despite the fact that they are 35, 33, and 33 years old, respectively.
New team tax-paying restrictions that will be phased in over the next two seasons as part of the NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement will make it more difficult for the Warriors to afford a large payroll indefinitely. This will be a factor for the club to take into account when negotiating with Green and when exploring a new deal for Thompson, who is eligible for an extension this off-season.
According to The Athletic reporters, if Thompson were to sign an extension with the Warriors in the off-season, it is expected that he would have to take a pay cut in order to secure a long-term deal and more guaranteed money overall. He is set to earn $43.2 million in 2023-24 in the final season of his current contract.
Slater and Charania suggest it Andrew WigginsThe extension could serve as a point of comparison for Thompson’s next deal – Wiggins earned $33.6 million in 2022-23 and agreed to a four-year extension worth $109 million ($27.25 million per year). Thompson’s new contract could be worth more, but it would presumably require a similar reduction in annual salary. The same thinking could apply to Green’s next contract, too.